Josh Steele

Josh Steele develops applications that allow scientists and the public to visualize and understand the large amount of data obtained from satellites that visit bodies in the solar system. This involves the fusion of many types of datasets (e.g., imagery, spectrometry, position information) using a broad set of technologies, including 3D visualization, augmented and virtual reality, cluster computing, and mobile computing. Steele has been involved in several spacecraft missions, including as a developer on the MESSENGER SciBox team, which carried out planning for the MESSENGER spacecraft, using knowledge of spacecraft and physical constraints, science needs, and available resources to plan the mission years ahead of time. He is the lead developer for the Small Body Mapping Tool (SBMT) project, which allows the visualization of scientific data on irregularly shaped bodies and was used to help determine the TAG site for the OSIRIS-REx mission to Bennu.